Instant Messaging (IM) is becoming a popular form of electronic communication for both personal and business use. IM does not yet have as many users, especially business users, as e-mail. However, the number of business IM users is expected to grow rapidly; from 10 million in 2002 to 182 million in 2007, according to Ferris Research. As IM use increases, unsolicited, unwanted instant messages (known as spim) are becoming a growing concern, just as spam increased as e-mail became more popular. In 2003, spim amounted to approximately 400 million messages, according to the marketing-research firm the Radicati Group. For 2004, Radicati expects the number to triple to 1.2 billion. Compared to spam, this number is still relatively low; the projected number of spam e-mail messages for 2004 is 34.8 billion. However, spim is more obtrusive than spam, because messages pop up automatically on a computer, handheld computing device or mobile phone when a user is logged in, making them harder to ignore. Whereas the timing of spam e-mail is controlled by the recipient, the timing of spim is controller by the sender.
What is needed are computer implemented methods, computer readable media and computer systems for detecting and blocking spim.